


Second Time Around

by st_aurafina



Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: Episode: s05e09 Sotto Voce, F/F, First Kiss, M/M, Post-Episode: s02e13 Dead Reckoning, Second Kiss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-26
Updated: 2018-10-25
Packaged: 2019-08-07 18:09:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16413329
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/st_aurafina/pseuds/st_aurafina
Summary: In this line of work, first kisses are inevitably desperate. Second kisses are a different matter.





	1. Steady Hands

**Author's Note:**

> Written but not posted for FF_A's 100 words of Second Kisses.

The first was desperate: on a rooftop, the display on the bomb vest a bright red glow between them. Harold reached for John, short of breath from the anticipation of explosion. John, his own face blank, kissed him back automatically, as if Harold had given him an order over the earpiece and he had obeyed without thinking. Harold saw the realisation hit John, saw his eyes widen mid-embrace and felt his arms tighten around him. Harold had a few moments of thoughtless airless bliss, then anxiety crowded back into him: what was he thinking? John might be caught up in the moment but this would all be excruciating in the morning. 

They broke apart, and Harold braced himself for the repercussions, even as the warmth of John's hands faded from his skin. Then John reached out, brushed the corner of Harold's mouth with a thumb and leaned in for a second kiss, slower and gentler. Harold closed his eyes and let his fears dissolve.


	2. Flash Grenade

The first was desperate: an admission and a farewell in one. Root thinks about it often in the months that follow. She wonders what it would have been like to linger over that first embrace. Better to have loved in the moment, she thinks sometimes. Other times she thinks that loving Sameen was always going to be something like an explosion: heat and fear and pain and exultation all at once. 

When Sameen comes back she is drawn and hollow-eyed, and she starts at every movement in the shadows. Root wheedles and bullies her back to her apartment, then watches her sitting on the sofa, hunched over and staring at the wall. 

Root sits facing her, cross-legged, barely breathing for fear Sameen will vanish again. Eventually Root takes her hand and kisses the fingertips one by one. Sameen's skin is cool against her lips – she should be warm, she has always burned hotter than Root – but Root doesn't worry. She's got fire enough to warm the two of them.


End file.
